Northern Ireland: Property Valuation Procedures Involving Public Servants

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Privy Seal on 13 February (WA 3) concerning valuation of property in North Down, what were the two valuations referred to in the Answer; and what was the final price settled at.[HL
	 Question number missing in Hansard, possibly truncated question.

Lord Williams of Mostyn: The two valuations were £168,000 and £180,000. The sale price was £174,000.

Provisional IRA

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Privy Seal on 4 February (WA 29), which of the following activities they consider the Provisional IRA is still involved in: recruitment, re-arming, training, targeting and punishment beatings.

Lord Williams of Mostyn: The Government have nothing further to add to the Answer that was provided on 4 February, Official Report, col. (WA 29) (HL1281).

Northern Ireland Act 2000: Legal Opinions

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Privy Seal on 13 February (WA 144), whether they (a) have not consulted and (b) will not consult any legal opinions obtained during the time of the devolved Northern Ireland Executive.

Lord Williams of Mostyn: The Government are not aware of any occasion since suspension on which they have consulted legal opinions given to the devolved administration in breach of the convention referred to in the Written Answer by the Lord Privy Seal on 13 February (WA 144), and they do not expect circumstances to arise in which they would wish to do so.

Security and Intelligence Agencies: Supplementary Estimates

Lord Campbell-Savours: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	When they will publish the Security and Intelligence Agencies' Spring Supplementary Estimate.

Lord Williams of Mostyn: Subject to Parliamentary approval of any necessary Supplementary Estimate, the Security and Intelligence Agencies DEL will be increased by £36,655,000 from £973,949,000 to £1,010,604,000 and the administration costs limits will be increased by £6,865,000 from £477,256,000 to £484,121,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
	
		
			  Resources Capital 
			 Change 12,905,000 23,750,000 
			 New DEL 846,819,000 163,403,000 
			 Of which:   
			 Voted 846,819,000 163,403,000 
			 Non-voted – – 
		
	
	The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:
	1. the take-up of end of year flexibility (EYF) of £10,500,000;
	2. a PES transfer of £120,000 from the MoD;
	3. a PES transfer of £1,050,000 from the Home Office;
	4. a transfer of £1,235,000 to Resource from Capital.
	The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:
	1. the take-up of end of year flexibility (EYF) of £24,600,000;
	2. a PES transfer of £385,000 from the Cabinet Office;
	3. a transfer of £1,235,000 from Capital to Resource.

Civil Contingencies Legislation

Baroness Blatch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	When they plan to produce a draft of emergency planning civil contingencies legislation.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: Work is progressing as planned on preparing new civil contingencies legislation, which is necessary to modernise existing civil defence, emergency planning and emergency powers legislation. This will be an organisational measure, improving on well-established, existing arrangements. We intend to publish policy proposals during summer 2003. New legislation will be introduced as soon as parliamentary time allows.

Light Dues

The Earl of Caithness: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Given their agreement of the "user pays" principle with regard to light dues, how they propose to charge dues on (a) vessels using lighthouse services but not calling at United Kingdom ports, and (b) smaller fishing and pleasure vessels; and
	When they propose to publish their responses to the consultation document Light Dues Review published in May 2002.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: The department carried out a consultation exercise on "Meeting the Cost of Marine Aids to Navigation" during 2002. We aim to make an announcement in March on our initial conclusions.

Light Dues

The Earl of Caithness: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	In the light of satellite communications and global positioning systems, how long they expect light dues to continue.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: We expect the reliance on traditional aids to navigation to reduce over the next 25 to 30 years. Over that period, traditional aids are expected to move increasingly to a secondary role and a new system of charging may then be considered.

Capita Group: Department for Transport Contracts

Baroness Blatch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What contracts have been awarded to the Capita Group by the Department for Transport.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: The information requested is given in the following table.
	
		
			 Department/Agency Title/Purpose Start Date End Date Value (see Notes a, b, c) 
			 (Central) Department External Recruitment Service for the recruitment of staff at all grades below the senior civil service. 12 November 2001 11 November 2002 £45,000 (c) (to date) 
			  National Road Traffic Census (Cumbria Region) for 2002–2004 1 January 2002 31 December 2004 £121,240(a) 
			 Driving Standards Agency Design, build, installation and operation of a computer system for the booking of the Practical Driving Test and associated services, and the supply and maintenance of the Agency's IT/IS infrastructure. 8 August 1997 7 August 2004 £9,800,000(a) 
			 Highways Agency Consultancy Services Framework for the provision of Human Resources advice and professional services. 13 February 2001 20 August 2003 £383,000(b) 
			  Consultancy Framework for the provision of construction and design services. June 2001 June 2006 £1,100,000 (c) (to date) 
			  Provision of safety engineering professional services. 25 January 2002 31 January 2004 £429,000 (a) 
			  Traffic monitoring services. 16 February 2000 11 February 2004 £846,385 (a) 
			  Framework Agreement for audit and measurement services. 15 August 2002 12 August 2005 £3,200,000 (b) 
			  Design and supervision of A66 Stainburn to Great Clifton Bypass trunk road contract. 5 February 2001 4 February 2008 £363,000 (a) 
		
	
	Note a: value of contract over its duration.
	Note b: maximum estimated value of orders placed over the life of the framework agreement.
	Note c: estimated value of framework agreement not quantified. Figures reflect actual value of orders placed to date on contract.

Department of Health and Food Standards Agency: Supplementary Estimates

Baroness Howells of St Davids: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether there are any proposals to amend the Department of Health's and the Food Standards Agency's departmental expenditure limits and administration cost limits for 2002–03.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency departmental expenditure limits (DELs) will be increased by £448,742,000 from £56,476,255,000 to £56,924,997,000 and the administration cost limits (ACL) will decrease by £10,539,000 from £379,782,000 to £369,243,000. The Department of Health DEL will be increased by £448,742,000 from £56,341,630,000 to £56,790,372,000 and the ACL will increase by
	£8,829,000 from £324,663,000 to £333,492,000. The Food Standards Agency DEL remains unchanged at £134,625,000 but the ACL will decrease by £19,368,000 from £55,119,000 to £35,751,000. The impact on resource and capital are set out in the following table.
	
		£'000
		
			  Resource Capital 
			 Change 393,200 55,542 
			 New Department of Health DEL 54,385,885 2,404,487 
			 Of which:   
			 Voted 54,858,261 1,161,967 
			 Non-Voted -472,376 1,242,520 
			 Food Standards Agency DEL 133,988 637 
			 Of which   
			 Voted 133,988 637 
			 Non-Voted 0 0 
			 Total DH/FSA Group DEL 54,519,873 2,405,124 
		
	
	The change in the resource element of the department expenditure limit for the Department of Health arises from: a claim for early take-up of additional end-year flexibility from 2001–02 £120 million and the take-up of end-year flexibility £16.111 million (£6 million revenue allocations and £10.111 million administration cost limit) as set out in Table 6 of the Public Expenditure 2001–02 Provisional Outturn White Paper Cm 5574 published in July 2002; a change in the level of NHS trust depreciation £58.216 million; a transfer from the capital element of the DH DEL of £197.051 million; additions from the Evidence Based Policy Fund £0.229 million; net transfers from the Home Office of £3.433 million for training bursaries drug research and drug action teams, training of staff, offset by a grant for match funded social care projects; net transfer to the National Assembly for Wales £-5.960 million (£-0,022 administration cost limit) mainly for out-of-area treatments, high security psychiatric services, cross-border prescribing and prison healthcare offset by contributions to committee costs and post-graduate medical education; net transfer to the Scottish Executive £-2.050 million for out-of-area treatments, offset by a contribution to HIV surveillance funding, contributions to postgraduate medical education, the High Security Infectious Diseases Unit and the Beta Interferon risk sharing scheme; a transfer to Department of Transport £-0.010 for contribution to the international transport programme, environment and health programme; a transfer to Department for Work and Pensions £-1.699 million for costs associated with the road traffic accident compensation recovery unit; from Department for Education and Skills £7.067 million for medical student bursaries offset by a contribution for funding education advisers; to Cabinet Office £-0.175 million for development of a website; from DHSS Northern Ireland £0.747 million for out-of-area treatments and the Beta Interferon risk sharing scheme and from Office of the Deputy Prime Minister £0.240 million (administration cost limit) for public service agreements.
	The change in the capital element of the department expenditure limit for the Department of Health arises from: the take-up of end-year flexibility £58.942 million as set out in Table 6 of the Public Expenditure 2001–02 Provisional Outturn White Paper Cm 5574 published in July 2002; additional resources for PFI balance sheet adjustments £153.571 million; a transfer to the resource element of the DH DEL of £-197.051 million; additions from the Capital Modernisation Fund £42.670 million; a transfer to the National Assembly for Wales £-0.540 million for accelerated discharge; to Department for Education and Skills
	£-1 million for a contribution for Derby Medical School; to Cabinet Office £-0.575 million for development of a website and to Ministry of Defence £-0.475 million for capital contribution for Royal Hospital Haslar.
	The Department of Health's administration cost limit has increased by £8.829 million from £324.663 million from £333.492 million as detailed above offset by a transfer of £-1.5million for capital provision. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) administration cost limit has decreased by £19.368 million from £55.119 million to £35.751 million as a result of re-classifying Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) costs from administration to programme and refining the FSA's and MHS's budget for 2002–03.

Tobacco Industry: Representations

Baroness Gale: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What representations they have received from the tobacco industry on measures to protect non-smokers.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The independent Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health is currently considering a series* of scientific reports submitted from the Tobacco Manufacturers Association entitled "Revisiting the Association between Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure and Lung Cancer Risk" authored by John S Fry, Barbara Forey and Peter N Lee, published in Indoor Built Environment 2002, Volumes 9-11.
	*
	I The Dose-Response Relationship with Amount and Duration of Smoking by the Husband
	II Adjustment for the Potential Confounding Effects of Fruit, Vegetables, Dietary Fat and Education
	III Adjustment for the Biasing Effect of Misclassification of Smoking Habits
	IV Investigating Heterogeneity between Studies
	V Overall Conclusions

Ministry of Defence: Supplementary Estimates

Lord Campbell-Savours: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	To what extent the Supplementary Estimates of the Ministry of Defence departmental expenditure limits will be increased.

Baroness Crawley: Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the Ministry of Defence departmental expenditure limits will be increased by £1,552,201,000 from £24,984,813,000 to £26,537,014,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
	£000s
	
		
			 ResourcesCapital 
			 Change New DEL Of which: Voted Non-Voted Change New DEL Of which: Voted Non-Voted 
			 1,034,825 20,177,493 19,787,783 389,710 517,376 6,359,521 6,283,093 76,428 
		
	
	The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:
	An increase of £500,000,000 as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review 2002 outcome whereby the MoD was provided with a Sustainability Fund to enhance the department's capability to sustain military operations.
	A net reduction of £102,960,000 due to a transfer of £340,000,000 to capital to reflect compliance with the accounting policy change in FRS15, offset by a transfer from capital of £237,040,000 to reflect in-year departmental reallocations.
	An addition of £21,233,000 towards the MoD's liability to British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.
	An increase of £314,000 towards the purchase of two Landing Ship Dock (Auxiliary) vessels, offset by the repayment of an advance in 2001–02 of £1,000,000 towards the purchase of two RoRo ferries. This gives a net decrease of £686,000.
	A transfer out of Resource DEL of £120,000 to the Single Intelligence Account relating to electricity charges on a shared site.
	A transfer in of Resource DEL of £183,000 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the OAB Citadel costs.
	An increase of £617,175,000 in the Request for Resource for Conflict Prevention to cover the net additional costs of military operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, the Gulf, Afghanistan and contingency planning for possible operations.
	The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:
	A net increase of £102,960,000 due to a transfer of £340,000,000 to capital from resource to reflect compliance with the accounting policy change in FRS15, offset by a transfer from capital to resource of £237,040,000 to reflect in-year departmental reallocations.
	An increase of £48,909,000 for the purchase of two Landing Ship Dock (Auxiliary) vessels.
	A reduction of £43,300,000 being the repayment of an advance in 2001–02 for the purchase of two RoRo ferries.
	An increase of £1,600,000 from the Capital Modernisation Fund for the Drug Stopper Project.
	A transfer in of Capital DEL of £475,000 from the Department of Health for the Diagnostic Treatment Centre at the Royal Haslar Hospital.
	An increase of £406,732,000 in the Request for Resource for Conflict Prevention to cover the net additional costs of military operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, the Gulf, Afghanistan and contingency planning for possible operations.

Elected Regional Assemblies: Soundings Exercise on Referendum

Lord Tebbit: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	In what manner they ensure fair distribution of pro formas for responses to the sounding exercise on the level of interest in each region in holding a referendum about establishing an elected regional assembly.

Lord Rooker: The soundings exercise document, with attached pro forma, was sent to every MP and MEP in the English regions outside London on 2 December. It was also sent to the regional branches of key stakeholder organisations such as the TUC, the CBI, the Institute of Directors, the Chambers of Commerce and the Local Government Association, as well as the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, for distribution to its members. In addition, a copy was sent to every principal local authority in those regions, and the voluntary regional chambers. A covering letter made it clear that the "information you provide [in response the soundings exercise] will be strengthened if it is clear that you have consulted widely", and we are aware that pro formas have been cascaded down to parish and town council level and beyond.
	A press release was issued to alert the public to the soundings exercise, which gave details of how to obtain the pro forma—it is freely available both on the Internet and by written, emailed, faxed or telephone request from the Government's distribution centre.
	A list of all organisations in England contacted about this soundings exercise have been placed in the Library of the House.

Zootechnical Feed Additives: Ionophores

Lord Hylton: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What independent advice they have received on the effects of ionophores in animal food on (a) resistance to antibiotics in humans and (b) the risks of young children exceeding acceptable daily intakes of such substances.

Lord Whitty: In 2000 the Veterinary Products Committee (VPC), the independent expert committee established to provide advice to Government on the safety, quality and efficacy of veterinary medicines, set up a sub-group to consider the safety and efficacy requirements for licensing antimicrobials in order to minimise the development of antimicrobial resistance and to provide guidance for industry.
	A report from this sub-group was published in January 2003. In that report the sub-group made a number of recommendations, including recommendations on the future regulation of all antimicrobial products, including ionophores. The full report is available on the VPC's website (www.vpc.gov.uk). The Government are considering the recommendations in this report.
	I am not aware of any advice that the Government have received specifically relating to the risks of young children exceeding acceptable daily intakes of ionophores.
	Dimetridazole and Narasin are no longer authorised for use as zootechnical feed additives for food-producing animals.
	In March 2001 the Veterinary Residues Committee (VRC) established a sub-group to look at the risks from residues of medicinal and zootechnical feed additives (including ionophores) in meat and other food products. This sub-group has not yet provided any advice to government on these issues.

Public Service Agreement Targets

Viscount Goschen: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	By what mechanism they keep track of targets and pledges made by government departments; and how they monitor progress towards the attainment of these specific goals and;
	Whether they will list, by government department, (a) the number of targets which they have set themselves; and (b) what each department's average success rate is in achieving those targets within the allotted time.

Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The Government's targets have been set out in successive public service agreement White Papers; Comprehensive Spending Review: Public Service Agreements 1999–2002: (Cm 4181): Spending Review 2000: Public Service Agreements 2001–04 (Cm 4808); and 2002 Spending Review: Public Service Agreements 2003–04 (Cm 5571). Departments have published progress against these targets annually since their inception in departmental reports, and from last year have published progress six monthly. From April, the Government will provide regular web-based reporting of progress against all the new PSA targets.